Florida school shooting: at least 17 shot dead by former pupil
Pictures emerge of Florida gunman Nikolaus Cruz being arrested, fellow pupils say they predicted he’d carry out a mass shooting.
UPDATED: Former fellow pupils of the gunman responsible for the massacre at a Florida school today say they predicted he would carry out a mass shooting.
At least 17 people were killed when Nikolaus de Jesus Cruz opened fire at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, south Florida in the third deadliest school shooting in US history.
Mr Cruz, 19, who had a history of threatening other pupils, is in custody after committing the “horrific, homicidal, detestable act,” said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, confirming the death toll.
“We have already begun to dissect his websites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things... are very, very disturbing,” Sheriff Israel said.
“He had countless magazines, multiple magazines, and at this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle,” the sheriff added.
Mr Cruz, who had been expelled from the school for disciplinary reasons, had been the subject of jokes from his fellow pupils. One student told WFOR-TV that other students “knew it was going to be him.”
“A lot of people were saying it was going to be him. A lot of kids threw jokes around saying that he was going to be the one to shoot up the school,” the student said. “It turns out that everyone predicted it. That’s crazy.”
Suspect lead into police station following deadly shooting at high school in Parkland, Florida; at least 15 people are dead, law enforcement officials tell @ABC News. https://t.co/1itMwE4Kku pic.twitter.com/h9rLtA26NY
— ABC News (@ABC) February 14, 2018
A teacher at the school told The Miami Herald Mr Cruz had previously been identified as a potential threat to pupils.
“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” said maths teacher Jim Gard, who added that Mr Cruz had been in his class last year. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”
Another student told WSVN Channel 7 Mr Cruz had guns at home.
Matthew Walker, 17, told ABC News, saying Mr Cruz was known to show off knives and guns on his social media accounts.
“He was going class to class just shooting at random kids,” he said. “Everything he posts [on social media] is about weapons. It’s sick.”
17 dead in mass shooting
At least 17 people have been killed in the Florida school shooting that has also injured up to 50 people, law enforcement officials have confirmed.
A 19-year-old former student with a history of threatening other pupils is in custody after committing the “horrific, homicidal, detestable act,” said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel, who confirmed the death toll.
Nikolas de Jesus Cruz reportedly went from window to window of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, south Florida., shooting into classrooms as pupils dived screaming for cover. Pupils said the gunman, wearing a gas mask, entered the school shortly after 2.30pm local time (6.30am AEDT) firing as he went.
Sheriff Israel, whose own children had gone to the school, described the incident as “catastrophic,” but ruled out terrorism.
He said Mr Cruz, who had been expelled for disciplinary reasons, had an AR-15 assault rifle with multiple loaded ammunition magazines.
Most of the fatalities were found inside the building, he said.
The superintendent of the county’s school district, Robert Runcie, told CNN he believed there were “numerous fatalities.”
“Just a horrible day for us,” Mr Runcie said.
“It’s a day that you pray every day when you get up that you will never have to see. It is in front of us,” Mr Runcie told WSVN Channel 7. “We received no warning... Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn’t have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.”
Police have confirmed Mr Cruz is in custody after being arrested at a house near the school in Parkland, south Florida. His brother is also being questioned.
Chilling footage shot by pupils showed their friends cowering under desks as rapid gunfire is heard in the corridor outside.
Video from inside Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School as the shooting was happening. #Parkland #ParklandShooting pic.twitter.com/VpzpGyaBQq
— Based Monitored 🇺🇸🇮🇪 (@BasedMonitored) February 14, 2018
Footage from the scene showed panicked children running from the school as police moved in to try to find the gunman who appeared to remain at large for a long period of time.
Witnesses spoke of the school setting off its fire alarm to warn students as the gunman was loose inside.
RAW VIDEO: SWAT Team Clears Classroom Following Deadly School Shooting In Florida pic.twitter.com/ARYekZI17p
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 14, 2018
The White House cancelled its daily press briefing after hearing the news and president Donald Trump tweeted: “My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher of anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.’
Witnesses said they took cover in their classrooms as the fire alarm rang, not knowing where the shooter was.
Some spoke of seeing bodies on the ground, including at least one teacher.
Nicole Baltzer, 18, told CNN she was in trigonometry class just before the end of the school day when the fire alarm went off. She then heard six gunshots.
“I heard so many gunshots, at least like six. They were very close,” Mr Baltzer said.
MORE: "She said she heard gunfire," father of student in Parkland, Florida, high school tells CBS News. "She said the window blew. She said she screamed and ran into the closet with her friends." https://t.co/Jwx0924vwL pic.twitter.com/aYzTcozM4d - @CBSNews
— Shawn McKenzie 🇺🇸 (@SMcK17) February 14, 2018
McKenzie Hartley, 19, who identified herself as the sister of a student at the school described the scene in a text message: “She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot.” Panicked parents checked on their children.
“It is just absolutely horrifying. I can’t believe this is happening,” Lissette Rozenblat, whose daughter goes to the school, told CNN. Her daughter called her to say she was safe but the student also told her mother she heard the cries of a person who was shot.
“My daughter, as of right now, she’s still trapped in a closet. She’s afraid to speak,” a man who identified himself as Caesar Figueroa and said his daughter was inside the school, told CBS News.
“I told her, ‘Don’t call me, because I don’t want no one to hear your voice.’ So, she’s still trapped in a closet in there.”
One pupil texted his parents about the incident soon after the shooting started. Len Murray’s 17-year-old son, a junior at the school sent his parents a chilling SMS: “Mom and Dad, there have been shots fired on campus at school. There are police sirens outside. I’m in the auditorium and the doors are locked.” A few minutes later, he texted again: “I’m fine.”
One of the students in Parkland high school #Florida shared photos of students texting their parents, hiding beneath chairs, during the shooting pic.twitter.com/rb7QBhmeik via @AmichaiStein1
— ARnews 1936 (@ARnews1936) February 14, 2018
Pupils filmed the shooting, with multiple gunshots and screaming heard in the background as schoolchildren dived to the floor.
Television images showed students being led out of the school by heavily armed police officers and an armored vehicle filled with a SWAT team arriving at the scene.
One injured victim was seen being placed into an ambulance on a stretcher. Police officers in helmets, bulletproof vests and armed with automatic weapons could be seen stationed at several points around the school.
Police from neighboring Coral Springs advised teachers and students in the building to “remain barricaded inside until police reach you.” CBS News cited the sheriff’s office as saying there were multiple people injured.
My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018
The shooting, one of several since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on America’s epidemic of gun violence and the ready accessibility of weapons, with 33,000 people dying annually from gun-related deaths.
Since January 2013, “there have been at least 283 school shootings across the country -- which averages out to one school shooting a week,” according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.
Since the 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot dead, warning procedures and emergency drills have multiplied at US schools.
The goal is to teach school children how to react to a shooter who opens fire at random.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
With agencies
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